The Thankful Thanksgiving Jar

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I'll just come right out and say it, I think we under-appreciate and undervalue the people around us. We know we love them and care about them deeply but how often do we tell them they we are thankful for them?

Today I'm going to share with you a new idea I had this year that I hope will become a family tradition. The Thankful Jar.

This is not just a jar to write what you are thankful about, but it's to write TO someone you are thankful for and why. Here's how it works.

As you gather around the Thanksgiving table, give each family member and friend the same number of pieces of paper as their are people in the room. Aka, if there are 6 people at your meal, each person gets 5 pieces of paper. (If you want to, you can go ahead and write the names of all of the people there on the pieces of paper ahead of time.)

Take 10-15 minutes and have each person write one thing they are thankful for about each person on the pieces of paper. (We know you are thankful for Mom, but what specifically are you thankful for that she does?)

After everyone has finished all of their thankful notes, put them in a jar. (Those that wrote the notes don't need to sign their names to the "thankfuls" that they wrote unless you really want them too!)

Pass the jar around the table, reading all the papers out loud to their respective friends and family members.

Thank you for sharing this fabulous idea. I am definately going to make a Thankfulness Jar. Everyone can write thier cards anytime prior to coffe & dessert. We will read them then. I really do love this idea….thanx again. Peace and Blessings in abundance to you and yours.

We did a Thankfulness Jar at our family dinner yesterday. There were 20 of us there, so I changed it up just a little. I put each person’s name on 3 pieces of paper and everyone had to choose 3 different names to write something that they were thankful for. The adults helped the 4 little ones, then after dessert and before a fun game of Apples2Apples we did our thankfulness jar. My nephew is serving in Afghanistan and even he was able to participate via phone. My sister saved his pieces of paper and will send to him in next pkg. Thank you, again, for sharing this special idea and helping us deposit another great memory into our memory banks.
Please share if you did this with your family and how it turned out.
Peace and Blessings, Juana

You must have shared this before as I saw this and made it 2 years ago. I made the jar and left the papers and pens by the jar and we each wrote 3 or 4. Little did we know that would be our last year with my sweet sister, Jenny. She passed on 1/3/13. Sometimes we forget to tell the ones we love the most just how much we are thankful for them (and why). I am happy that she was reminded of our love for her before she joined Our Savior in The Kingdom so soon after the holidays. This year I am doing a project with my 2 little grand-girlies that was shared on The Homespun Wife recently (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Homespun-Wife/438031649574810). It involves 5 kernels of corn and being thankful for our blessings, no matter how small. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Thanks for taking a moment to share your thoughts and your story. I love to hear from you! Please remember this is a supportive and encouraging community. LHL reserves the right to delete any personal attacks, rude or offensive language, or anything not deemed family friendly.